Conversation between the Father and the Son
स होवाच पितरं तत कस्मै मां दास्यसीति ।
द्वितीयं तृतीयं तँ होवाच मृत्यवे त्वा ददामीति ॥ ४॥
sa hovāca pitaraṃ tata kasmai māṃ dāsyasīti .
dvitīyaṃ tṛtīyaṃ tam̐ hovāca mṛtyave tvā dadāmīti .. 4..
He said to his father: Father! To whom will you give me? He said this a second and a third time. Then his father replied: Unto death I will give you.
Commentary:
Nachiketas asked his father, “Dear Father, to whom are you going to offer me?”
The father did not pay any attention to this blabbering of the impertinent child. He thought: “You speak like this before me as if I am going to offer you, my dear son, to somebody else?” and he spoke not a word in reply.
A second time the child asked, “Father, to whom are you going to give me?”
The second time also the father did not give a reply. He was annoyed.
A third time this boy persisted in asking the same question: “To whom are you going to offer me as a gift?”
The father got irritated. “To hell you go. To death I offer thee.”
Sometimes, in uncontrollable irascibility, people utter words, to their own repentance afterwards. You might have seen a father or mother condemning their children in words which are abominable, they themselves not knowing the meaning at all. Anyway, this word came from the mouth of the father in haste and anger, though he would not have uttered such words in saner moments.
Swami Vivekananda Says —
And so the boy approached the father with the greatest respect and humbly inquired of him, “Father, to whom are you going to give me? For your sacrifice requires that everything shall be given away.” The father was very much vexed at this question and replied, “What do you mean, boy? A father giving away his own son?” The boy asked the question a second and a third time, and then the angry father answered, “Thee I give unto Death (Yama).”[Source]
